LatinNews Daily - 08 January 2024

*Minera Panamá S.A. (MPSA), the subsidiary of Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals (FQM) which owns Cobre Panamá, Panama’s biggest mine, has expressed concern regarding planned unrest at its mine which a November 2023 supreme court (CSJ) ruling ordered to be shut down. An MPSA statement calls on the authorities to take the necessary measures to prevent violence or illegal actions in response to a demonstration scheduled for 9 January by the powerful construction workers’ union Sindicato Único Nacional de Trabajadores de la Construcción y Similares (Suntracs) (which does not represent the mine’s workers) and protest movement Alianza Pueblo Unido por la Vida (APUV), called to commemorate the Day of the Martyrs – the anniversary of deadly riots in 1964 over the sovereignty of the Panama Canal Zone. Suntracs and APUV had led the major protests against the mine, the contract for which was deemed unconstitutional on multiple grounds. In a press conference last month Suntracs leader Saúl Méndez called on all Panamanians “to come with us, to go where our sovereignty was violated”. Concerns have previously been raised by the country’s main mining union, Unión de Trabajadores de Minera Panamá (Utramipa), which in a 29 December statement similarly called on the authorities to prevent violence against remaining staff at the site, highlighting that Suntracs had entered the site by force in 2016 and 2018.